12/07/2012

The Plight of the Alpha Female


The Plight of the Alpha Female
Women remain scarce in the most elite positions. And it’s by choice.

For women, work and family commitments have long been in tension.
BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP IMAGES
For women, work and family commitments have long been in tension.
Are we witnessing “the end of men”? You can see why the idea—also the title of a new book by journalist Hanna Rosin—makes sense. Women obtain the majority of college and graduate-school degrees. In their twenties, if they don’t have children, they outearn their male peers. They’re the primary wage earners in a rapidly growing percentage of households. American women even won more Olympic medals than their male compatriots did this summer. But for all of women’s success, there’s one area in which the rumor of male demise has been greatly exaggerated. At the top of every industry, men remain in charge. Finance, law, medicine, business, government, media, academia—you’ll have a tough time finding enough alpha-level women in any of these fields to fill a Davos conference room.


http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_4_alpha-female.html



No comments: